January 28

 814:
Charlemagne passed away. The grandson of Charles Martel was one of the greatest
European rulers during the Dark Ages.  There was nothing Dark about his
treatment of the Jews.  For the most part, he ignored canon law and…

January 22

1167(23rd
of Shevat, 4927): Ibn-Ezra passed away at the age of 78 in Calahorra which was
on the border between Navarre and Aragon. There is no way that any entry could
do justice to this Sephardic writer, philosopher, scientist and most imp…

December 16

1316:
Öljaitü, the eighth Ilkhanid dynasty ruler in Tabriz, Iran, whom the former
vizer Rashid-al-Din Hamadani the Jewish convert to Islam was found of guilty of
trying to poison, passed away today.

1431:
King Henry VI of England named Ki…

December 13

522 BCE: Darius I, the Persian monarch who allowed the Jewish people to
re-build the Temple at Jerusalem strengthened his hold on his kingdom when he
defeated Nebuchadnezzar III in a battle at the Tigris and at the Euphrates.

519 BCE: Acc…

DECEMBER 6

1060: Béla I of Hungary is crowned king of Hungary.
In 1061 Bela changed the Market Day from the traditional Sunday to Saturday
which may have been part of an attempt to remove the Jews from the commercial
activity of the kingdom.  Giv…

November 26

43 BCE: The Second Triumvirate alliance of Gaius Julius
Caesar Octavianus (“Octavian”, later “Caesar Augustus”),
Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, and Mark Antony is formed. This power sharing
arrangement would fall apart. Octavian would defeat Mar…

November 21

456 BCE (20th of Kislev, 3306): Ezra called together all the men of Judah
and Benjamin and told them that they would have to give up their foreign born
wives.  This was part of an attempt by
the returning exiles to purify and strength…